Tucson-based Engineering and Research Associates Inc., known as SEBRA, has sold its blood-collection and processing division to a Massachusetts firm for $12.5 million cash.
Haemonetics Corp., a global blood management solutions company in Braintree, Mass., will retain the SEBRA brand and relocate the division to its Braintree and Salt Lake City locations.
The companies announced Tuesday that the acquisition is expected to close within several weeks.
SEBRA employs 75 people in Tucson, down from a peak of 100 a year ago.
Those in the blood division acquired by Haemonetics will be offered jobs at the out-of-state locations, said SEBRA President and CEO Roger Vogel, who did not have specific job numbers.
Initially, the deal will mean a net decrease in jobs in Tucson. In the long term, however, Vogel predicted a net increase, due in part to the capital raised by selling the business line.
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"We're going to take those dollars and reinvest and continue to grow SEBRA here in Tucson," Vogel said. "We like doing business here and being here, and it's our goal to continue to grow this company in this community."
The sale will enable Engineering and Research Associates to expand its other products and services for the medical-device manufacturing and biopharmaceutical industries, Vogel said. It will operate under a new name to be announced later this year.
The SEBRA blood collection and processing business reported $10 million in sales in 2008. Vogel, a former IBM executive who began leading SEBRA in 2005, said the company overall has grown nicely in the past five years or so.
SEBRA's products include radio-frequency tube sealers, whole-blood collection devices and other ancillary equipment.
Haemonetics says it helps hospitals and blood collectors improve care and lower costs by optimizing the collection, processing and use of scarce blood resources.
Brian Concannon, Haemonetics president and CEO, said the SEBRA products expand Haemonetics' offerings while strengthening the company's footprint in the whole blood collection market at the right time. The company is developing an automated whole blood collection system expected to launch in late fiscal 2011.
DID YOU KNOW
Engineering and Research Associates Inc., which does business as SEBRA, was founded in Tucson in 1974 by Loren Acker, who came to the area from California to work on a telescope project at Kitt Peak. Acker is still a shareholder and director of the company.
SEBRA patented the first radio-frequency, hand-held tube sealer — which uses radio waves to seal plastic tubing — more than 25 years ago.